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Tetradrachm In the name of Alexander III
| Issuer | Methymna |
|---|---|
| Year | 215 BC - 200 BC |
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| Currency | Drachm |
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| Obverse description | Facing right, the heroized effigy of Herakles rendered in high relief, wearing the Nemean lion scalp headdress whose paws are knotted at the throat; the facial features bear the idealized portrait traits conventionally associated with Alexander III the Great. The finely modeled curls of hair emerge from beneath the lion skin, and the muscular neck and chin are rendered with considerable sculptural precision characteristic of the Hellenistic die-cutting tradition. |
|---|---|
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| Mint | Methymna |
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| Additional information |
Methymna, on the northern coast of Lesbos, was one of the few cities permitted to strike posthumous Alexanders in its own name — a distinction that reflects the city's political alignment during the wars of the Diadochi rather than any special minting privilege. These issues postdate Alexander's death by over a century, struck during a period when the Alexander-type tetradrachm had become the dominant trade currency across the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, and civic mints issued them largely to participate in that commercial network.
Price 1692 is distinguished by its specific monogram control marks, which anchor it to the Methymna mint sequence documented by Martin Price in his 1991 corpus.